Friday 29 February 2008

Back in the Day - Ladies Chess

A couple of weeks ago I had a post about old chess magazines ( Back in the Day ) and someone asked me whether any games played by women were published in "The Chess Bulletin" in 1951. Without knowing the background I find this an odd question, but sufficiently odd to break my own rule about not replying to anonymous posters.
In the November 1951 edition there was a game played by a Miss G. Kaye in the NSWCA B Reserve Competition. There was brief introduction to the game stating that she had "learnt the moves only fairly recently" but as a sign of the times ended with the following comment. "We hope she will refrain from using rolling-pins when in Zugzwang"

Here is the game concerned, with my annotations replacing the brief notes that were given when the game was originally published.


Kaye,G - N.N [D20]
B Reserve, 1951

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nc3 e6 4.e4 Nf6 5.Bxc4 Bb4 6.Nge2? White blunders (sacrifices?) the e pawn. 6...Nxe4 7.Qd3 f5?! 8.0-0 Nd6 9.Bb3 0-0 10.Nf4 Qe7 (D)
11.a3 [ 11.Ncd5!! was missed by both the players, and the annotator. 11...exd5 12.Nxd5 Qh4 ( 12...Qd8 13.Ne7+ Kh8 14.Ng6+! hxg6 15.Qh3+ Qh4 16.Qxh4#) 13.Nxc7+ Kh8 14.Nxa8+-] 11...Ba5 12.Re1 Kh8 13.Nxe6 At this point the annotator tartly remarks "Somehow or other White has achieved a winning position" 13...Re8 14.Bg5 Qd7 [ 14...Qf7 15.Nxc7! Rxe1+ 16.Rxe1 Qxb3 17.Nxa8 favours white, although both players could still go wrong here.] 15.Nc5 Rxe1+ 16.Rxe1 Qc6 17.Re7! h6 18.Qh3 [ 18.Bxh6 gxh6 19.Qg3 also mates.] 18...f4 19.Qxh6+!! gxh6 20.Bf6# 1-0

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice links nindafunky - shame about the face!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the game.
Perhaps a regular ( 1 game a month )item in your blog is to publish an Australian women's game that is not well known.